Broken
(A/N this is an attempt at a continuation, I am not very happy with it but we'll see where it goes)
Kaiou Michuru sat by the bed of her lover, gently stroking the taller girl's hair. The steady beeping of the monitors had faded into the background, only the too gentle rise and fall of Haruka's chest revealed the truth of her life.
"Why?" Michuru murmured for the thousandth time, fresh tears falling down her delicate face. Once again she broke down, collapsing onto the comatose body of the woman she was supposed to spend eternity with. Even as she lay there, her head resting on her lover's chest, she could still picture the way things were supposed to be, balls, dresses, music and laughter. Instead there was only pain, dust and the quiet noises of the machines that were all that stood between her love and death.
"I wish I knew" replied Mizuno Ami, unable to see where the question was directed. Since that terrible day she had seen only darkness. Even now over a month later her ruined eyes remained bandaged and she was a long way from adjusted to her new condition. Inside that darkness more changes had gone by less noticed. What Michuru would never know is that the shy retiring girl had been biting back harsher words.
Her mother had seen it first. The look on her face as Ami had sworn at her and told her that "No it wasn't going to be alright in the end," that there were no happy endings and "For fuck's sake wake up!" had been priceless. For once Ami had actually enjoyed hurting someone, it was nice to be the one dishing the pain for a change, to have just a little control in the world gone mad. That the quiet girl had since started using a razor on herself was just another attempt at control, Ami knew this, if she hadn't guessed then one of the damn cats would have told her.
"Bloody sanctimonious bastards" Ami muttered. This of course set Michuru off again.
"Shut up!" she cried, "All I want is some peace, some time alone with… Just leave!" she finished pointing at the door.
"Damn her!" the quiet girl fumed, leaving nonetheless. "Other people are hurting too! At least there is still hope for Haruka." For Ami that was the worst of it by far. Over the years she had watched the Elder couple with increasing envy, hiding her own feelings behind a mask of friendship. She had guessed that her beloved was at least a little aware, but for the sake of their friendship she had quashed the feelings again. By the time Ami had finally admitted the true depth of her feelings for her fellow Senshi it had been to late and her beloved had died in her arms.
O
O
"Ami I….." Jupiter coughed, flecks of blood staining Ami's already filthy fuku.
"Shh I know anata" Ami replied, wiping a trickle of blood from the corner of Jupiter's mouth. "You can tell me later-"
"Ami," Makoto interrupted, running a bloodied hand through the smaller girl's thick black hair, "Ashiter-" but the word was interrupted by a spasm of coughing. A bout of coughing that ended in a harsh rattle. Kino Makoto, senshi of Jupiter, was dead, and with her so died a piece of Mizuno Ami.
O
o
The dark day had shattered all that the girls had believed in, destroyed the perfect world they inhabited. Suddenly a pure heart did not guarantee success, Love would not see you through. From the moment the first one of them had fallen their universe had changed forever.
Setsuna, unusually rattled by her inability to predict the sudden incursion into downtown Tokyo, had leapt to the attack, Dead Scream leading. The monster, Winged and fiery, had absorbed her attack, looking more shocked than concerned, and only after a moment's silence did it respond. It had leapt at the Senshi of time, four taloned arms leading. When it had arrived those same claws had torn through Setsuna's skin and flesh. Ami's nightmares were still haunted by the sound that accompanied the strike that had driven Pluto into a broken heap at the foot of a wall nearly ten feet away.
Next had been Rei, always fiery of temper as well as by calling had rushed in, enraged beyond reason. The beast had turned on her and within seconds the once proud Senshi of Mars lay broken and bloody on the floor, her ribcage open to the sky. Ami had seen a split artery eject bright blood a goodeight feet into the sky, and seen the beast swallow Rei's beating heart.
Hotaru and Mina had faced similar, gory fates, caught unaware as Mercury's Shabon spray failed to blind the fiend.
Then Lovely Makoto, so strong and able, a perfect combination of form and function, suddenly torn down in her prime; she had died in Mercury's arms, unable even to finish her declaration of love.
The worst was still to come. After all it wasn't as if the senshi hadn't faced death before. Indeed most of them had already died once and been reborn. No the worst was to come when the demon they fought had laughed off their leader's most powerful attack and turned on the princess. He had then absentmindedly killed the destined king of Crystal Tokyo, without so much as a sideways glance, before stealing their princess and carrying her screaming into the void whence it came.
The team had been shattered, its very core torn out. All that was left were broken shells. Shells like the bitter, blinded creature that had been the Senshi of Mercury and the hollow shell that had been the Senshi of Neptune, living embodiment of the beauty and grace that they all had aspired to, now broken and forlorn.
Even these shells were better off than some others. Haruka crippled, Setsuna missing and Rei, Mina, Mamoru and even little Hotaru all now lying cold in chillers below the hospital, the fragile spark of their life extinguished.
O
o
It had all started so suddenly. The girls had been meeting up at the shrine, more for old time's sake than any lingering need. It had literally been years since the senshi had been called upon to use their powers. Slowly the girls had drifted apart, differences that had been ignored under the strain of mutual struggle suddenly becoming magnified by pressures like finals and college entrance exams. Boyfriends, girlfriends and even pets had all conspired to drive a wedge between the friends.
It had been Usagi's idea, ever the peacemaker she had even managed to convince Haruka to agree to be in the same room as Mamoru, no small feat considering the blood between them. With the exception of Setsuna the small circle had met and were managing to be polite, even friendly. Then it had all gone wrong.
O
"Senshi!" Setsuna shouted, suddenly appearing in the corner of the room. "You need to see this!" she said switching on a news channel. At the same time Ami's own alarm went off, a long unused police band scanner on the mercury computer flashing up the word 'Monster.'
On the rapidly awoken TV a scene of true horror was unfolding. A gigantic fiery beast wielding a massive, sparking spear was slaughtering people at the Crown arcade. Even as they watched they saw their old friend Motoki trying to flee for his life, only to be speared clean through the spine and guts. An inarticulate cry of agony was torn from his throat, cut off as blood fountained from the red slash that was his mouth. They could almost smell the burning flesh.
Naturally they had dropped everything and transformed. Once more the sailor suited soldiers of love and justice they had grown up to be.
In their hearts they had already come to know that the coming fight would be different from the children's games they had played before but they had all refused to believe that anything would be different.
Then the monster had started killing them and everything was different.
o
o
Meiou Setsuna knelt in front of the gates of time, watching the horrible vision she had summoned. Her left leg was stretched out at an obscene angle, her uniform tatters matted together by hre own blood. Her beautiful face bound with rags across most of the left side. Despite all of this she had somehow summoned the energy to search even into this lowest pit.
As ever the chaotic distortions of Hell made any scanning difficult but after a month of fruitless searching the Senshi of Time had finally located her princess. The scene was worse than she had ever expected, her delicate princess being brutalised by a pack of howling devils, her mouth torn at the edges from screaming. Even to be visible through the distortion this event had to be either endlessly repeated or all but continuous. Setsuna wept, wept for her weakness and her failure. She wept for her broken dreams and for the shining future that would never be.
"Serenity forgive me, I have failed you both."
O
O
O
Urd, goddess of the past, was just putting the final touches to her outfit for the party when she heard the prayer of one of her own. The Norns, as goddesses of time, were all specially connected to the Guardian of the Gate. Of course Urd was closer than even her sisters, for reasons a lot more personal.
The Silver millennium had been a blessed age for mankind, and in more ways than one. During that age of peace and prosperity those touched by the divine spark mingled freely with the people of the eight worlds. Friendships were formed, relationships developed and in the end children were born. These children, although not possessing all the energy of their divine parent often possessed magical powers way beyond the norm even for that magical age. Urd had been one of those divinities that had fallen in love with a mortal, for a brief lifetime she and her lover had made the universe their own, had written symphonies among the stars, and built a family. Meiou Setsuna was a direct descendant of that union; her amazing powers over Time could be attributed in no small way to Urd's gift.
Urd wasted no time, transporting herself to heaven as fast as she was able. Once there she called up everything she could on the Guardian of time. The physical description was enough to concern her, a list of injuries that would kill most people, staved off only by the preservative effects of her location. But when the Norn tried to access the database for the cause of the injuries she ran into a brick wall. Or rather an encryption code bearing all the hallmarks of the top office.
In her time Urd had cracked some serious code, but this was far worse than that, even calling up the file had set off alarms higher up.
"Holy…" Urd started to swear, then caught herself. Her hand still tightly clenched across her mouth she ran for the door. Something big was going down and she had the feeling that she had just walked into it again.
Back in her room at the shrine Urd took another deep breath. It seemed using Peorth's access code and terminal wasn't a wasted effort after all. The look on the snooty goddess's face alone would have made the trip worthwhile. But it hadn't solved the problem.
"Looks like we'll have to go old school on this" she muttered to herself, turning to her wardrobe.
o
o
The being that used to be Saotome Ranma sat alone in the darkness of his apartment. He was sat cross-legged on a large couch, stripped to the waist. Between his hands circled a ball of deep purple and sky blue energy. The light it gave off bounced off the surfaces of the room, casting evil shadows that seemed to move until you looked at them directly.
By the dark light his torso could just be made out, covered in a darker pattern that once more seemed to writhe of its own volition; an ever-changing arcane pattern that the human mind was simply unable to grasp.
His eyes were the only other light source in the room, casting a flickering light all of their own, and deeply focused on the ball in front of him. Despite the alien nature of these eyes they gave the unmistakable impression of deepest concentration and more than a little strain.
All of a sudden from somewhere hidden in the darkness came the plaintiff sound of a mobile phone alarm. Ranma uttered a truly obscene oath (at least if you knew gutter deamonic) and let his construction fade.
He extended one, altered, hand towards the phone and it flew to his grasp in response, as if grasped by the figure's own shadow. His blazing eyes, clearly showing his anger at being disturbed, fixed on the illuminated display.
"Damn!" he swore, "Bloody party!" He straightened and threw back the couch with his legs, effortlessly throwing the large settee back into the wall to clear it out of his way. Without even looking at the now ruined couch he stalked into another room. The ruined remains of the crushed phone trailing behind him.
Within a few minutes he returned, clad in a high collared silk Chinese suit. As he stepped into the lighted hallway the suit seemed to shimmer with a dark gloss pattern but the effect was soon gone as he continued into the lift, pulling on a set of black gloves.
Seconds later he emerged onto the roof, through a door that should have been locked but opened at his touch, and walked out towards the edge. As he approached he broke into a trot and then a run. Behind him his shadow unfurled, stretching out into the nighted sky. As his foot curled over the lip of the roof Ranma leapt out into space, and flew.
O
O
Nekomi Tech's student union looked like a bomb site. It was a three story affair, built during a particularly ugly trend in architecture. Inside however the many students of Nekomi Tech had been able to find a home. Spread over three levels were two pubs one dance club and a terrace restaurant, all decked out in a stunning variety of deor and themes, varied enough that almost anyone could find a homely corner. However the motor club had moved in, and brought their favourite bits with them. From the homemade bucking bronco to the micro-bikes the whole building was strewn with techno-parts. The committee room had been taken over for a swap-meet and every square inch of the room now seemed to be sporting greasy engine parts or second-hand tools. What had been supposed to be a few friends meeting up before the party to swap a few parts had gone wildly out of control.
Keichi and his sister were presiding over the last minute problems from the only clear space, on top of the bar.
"So Rogi's bringing his van to pick up the broken bronco?" Keichi asked, strain evident across his whole demeanour.
"Uh-huh" Megumi agreed.
"And Toshi's bringing his pickup to collect the two V8's?"
"Uh-huh"
"But Sato is still demanding that Heero delivers the hydraulics, and Heero is-"
"Nowhere to be found" Megumi finished.
"Urgh!" Keichi moaned, clutching his head in his hand.
"Tell
you what bro" she broke in, "Leave this to me. You worry about
the party, I'll sort the clean up."
"Really?" he asked,
face lighting up. She nodded. He hugged her and fled before she could
change her mind.
By the time he returned , loaded down with munchies and trailing balloons, all the levels of the union were undergoing a transformation. Everywhere he looked there were guys lifting the motor club's gear into boxes, carefully.
"Meg?" Keichi wondered.
"Yeah bro?" she replied, suddenly appearing behind him. Everything from pretzels to party hats was suddenly raining around the pair.
He looked at her, she looked at him. He glared, she licked dipping sauce off her face and smiled. "Wassup?" she asked, as if she didn't have pretzels in her hair.
"Er…"
"Well when you remember, come find me" she finished, and rapidly headed away. No sooner had she got out of sight than she leaned back against a wall and let out a long sigh.
"That was far too close" she whispered. "Kami only knows what he's gonna say when he finds out Belldandy's catering for the men's hockey club party, or what her sister is supposed to wear while she serves the meal." For a brief moment she wished she had never heard the phrase 'double or nothing' but quickly dismissed the idea, after all it was Keichi's problem now.
O
O
Ranma landed with a muffled thump ten feet from the dorrway, his shadow-wings folding to the ground around him. As he straightened they faded once more into the background and he could be seen adjusting his shades and running a gloved hand across his spiked hair.
In front of him the door beckoned, guarded by two weasly looking members of the club who were 'checking invitations.' As Ranma approached they let another semi-dressed girl in, and even managed to pick their jaws off the floor before Ranma arrived.
"Er Hi?" said the spotty one on the left. He was dressed in what passed for the latest of petrol-head chic, neon dungarees and a bulky jacket. He was also thoroughly confused as to why someone dressed quite as well as the man in front of him would want to go to the motor-club party. "Let me guess, you know the Wodensons right?" he hazarded, figuring that only babes like that could make someone like this attend.
He was rewarded with a wry smile.
"That obvious eh?" said the stranger in a gravely voice, skipping straight past creepy and right into scary as hell. Before either he or his friend could gather their yellow streaks the man had walked right past them.
"Whoooo" intoned the second one, "creepy!"
"You said it" replied the first, gulping down the lump in his throat, and trying to ignore what h thought he saw the man's shadow doing.
Inside the party was still winding up, everywhere Ranma looked he could see people meeting. The bar was crowded with people after their first drink and the band were playing for one lonely drunk on the all but deserted dancefloor. To anybody else that might have been all that they saw, but for Ranma small extra details stood out: the diminished lifeforce of the dancer giving away that her state was probably more to do with drugs than drink, the dark 'mature' student in the corner who was well on his way to losing himself in his own darkness, no doubt here with his own supply of date rape drugs, and the bright glow coming from the prettiest girl in the room.
O
O
"Oh my!" Belldandy intoned as her eyes spotted the newcomer. She had not thought to see him again and the feelings he brought up were far from welcome. Keichi followed her gaze and saw the latest entrant to the party.
"Oh no" he whispered, "is it too much to ask that a single evening goes by without my life being invaded by demons?"
"What was that bro?" Megumi asked, "Oh my he's dishy." She said, having followed her brother's line of sight. "Any idea-"
"Meg No!" he ordered in his best impression of a patriarchal voice, "You do not want to know that man. Hey where are you going? You come back here right now Young Lady I'm not fin….Oh hell, like anyone listens to me anyway." He finished lamely.
"I do Kei-kun" Belldandy said, smiling as she pulled his hand away from his face. Suddenly all was right with the world, and Keichi answered with a goofy smile that was all his own.
"Uh er that is I um.." he said, she giggled, and it was all downhill from there. Small things like Ranma's presence slipped right away, the two were in love and that was everything.
O
O
"Hi there, can I help you?" Megumi said. On the way over she had rapidly discarded the forward approach she had been planning on. Strangely enough it had seemed like a good idea when she stood by her brother but with that strange smell gone from her nostrils her own character was re-asserting itself. So instead of hitting him with the Morisato version of an amazon glomp she had gotten a drink and taken the time to study him a little. For all the confidence he was projecting the man in question seemed to be at a loss in the crowd. What she wasn't ready for was his sudden aboutface, she almost leapt out of her skin as the man seemed to suddenly be looking straight at her, without ever needing to turn.
For a long second his shades regarded her then he answered, with a voice that was welvet and steel, "Thank you, Morisato-san. I am looking for Wodensen Urd." At the mere sound of his voice Megumi felt a shiver run straight down her spine, it was part fear and part something else entirely. Then the implication of the words sunk in and she could almost hear the plane crashing."
"You're with Urd?" she whispered in a small voice with a faint catch, feeling unusually vulnerable.
"Not exactly Morisato-san" Ranma replied, catching on. "We have only met twice."
"Oh" Megumi replied, trying not to smile too largely.
"But nor am I looking for a relationship" he continued with steely finality.
"Oh"
Megumi replied, bouncing back. "Well …where were we?"
"Urd"
Ranma supplied, with a butterfly-causing smile.
"Not here" Megumi replied, once again thrown. Suddenly her mouth was very dry.
"Can I get you a drink while we wait?" he asked, appearing to read her mind.
"No," she argued, "Let me. I won't have to queue," she explained. He nodded, and smiled again in that heart stopping way and she was off. It was only after she got around the bar and was talking to her friend Greg that she realised that she didn't have the faintest idea what he wanted.
"Er, hi Greg can I get a orange juice and a…"
"Sake, strong" interrupted his voice. Megumi turned to find Ranma at the bar, just next to them. Somehow he had reached the bar fast enough to be in just the right place, despite the bar being six deep in most places. As she looked at him she spotted that there was a gap around him as well. In a city where personal space was as much a fiction as thieves honour he had managed to not only jump the queue but also get private space at the bar.
Shaking her head Megumi shrugged it off as yet another weird thing that happened when she was near her brother. She collected the drinks and signalled to Ranma that she would meet him back round the other side.
On the way through she was jostled more than once, and even had her ass playfully grabbed by one guy from the hockey team who had stayed behind for a few drinks, he got kicked in the shin for his effort but that didn't make her butt any less sore.
By the time she found Ranma he was leaning up against a wall in a quiet corner just away from the bar.
"You moved," she accused.
"Don't like crowds" he replied, but she heard more. She was suddenly sure that he had a real reason for disliking groups, and she was equally sure that she didn't want to know what it was.
"Er in that case.." she started to say, only to be hit with a wave of sudden dizziness. Ranma caught her effortlessly, and suddenly she found herself held in his strong arms, and inhaling an intoxicating musk that was all Man.
"You have been drugged Morisato san," he continued, "I suggest you return to where your brother is sitting and ask his girlfriend for some help." She was halfway back before she even realised that she had turned. She looked back and could see no sign of the man she had just been talking to.
By the time she got back to her brother and Bell the dizziness was all but flooring her. Even as Bell and Keichi became aware of her she started to fall. Her brother caught her just before she hit the floor, and just before the darkness closed in she could see the concern. Ironically her last thought was that this would probably get her off the hook with Keichi.
O
O
O
Yamoko Daishi was scared. He had been the janitor of Nekomi Tech's student union for nearly a decade, and for most of that time he had been a model employee. Then he had discovered the wonders of pharmaceuticals, GHB, ryhypnol, and now the latest version, he had used them all and had a secret stash of videos to prove it. The way he looked at it the tarts were one step from whores anyway, he wasn't really taking anything they wouldn't give up if he had just been born a little prettier. So he drugged them, used them and dumped them. But now something had gone wrong.
It wasn't the first time that his quarry had got away from him, part of the skill was knowing when to cut and run, leave the hunt for another day. However this time the man who had helped her hadn't spent any time wondering, hadn't even bothered smelling the drink, he had just looked straight over at him. When the huge man took off his shades Daishi thought he was going to crap himself on the spot. The look the man gave him promised horrible, lingering death and loosened the janitor's bowels on the spot.
"Its not like you did anything really wrong" said the voice of his conscience. "The girls would have probably thanked you for it if you had been prettier. Hell you even gave them the perfect excuse to deny it ever happened, saving their honour-"
Daishi ran, muttering to himself, making up excuses as he went. Unfortunately for him he should have paid a little more attention to where he was going.
"DAMN!" he swore as he found himself faced with a chainlink fence. He had run down an alley, and would have to double back.
He turned, just in time to see Ranma land. He saw the wings, he saw the roiling shadows, he saw the burning pits where there should have been eyes, and he saw the claws of darkness extending from the figure's hands.
"Demian" the figure intoned, in a voice that was half whisper and half roar. Daishi tried to mutter a denial but suddenly his mouth was clogged. Instead of words an evil black tar-like substance vomited forth. The pain was excruciating. When it ended Daishi was left coughing up blood and bile, lying in a pathetic heap on the floor.
That didn't stop him seeing the tar form itself into a demonic shape. It was all tentacles and spines, glistening black in the Tokyo nightlight, its barbed tail swishing a staccato of fear.
"Noooone of Yooour Buisinesssss" the creature hissed. "Man issssss miiiiinnnne, gave himsssself willllinglllyyy to thee darknessss."
"Wrong" Ranma replied, suddenly rippling with dark energies. The demon quickly crossed its arms defensively, but when the dark mauve energy hit it was still thrown into the fence with enough force to buckle the whole thing.
As it picked its bloody self up off the floor a taloned hand grasped it by the back of its spiny head. Ranma's other hand then tore into it with a staccato of clawing swipes, and hard punches. The devil Demian was soon bouncing from wall to wall to floor, propelled by the anger of the figure in black. Each strike pounded more of its substance out, splattering it across the alley like dark molasses. Each strike caused the creature to scream again, and again. Its entire existence reduced to the space between strikes, between pain and agony.
From the floor Daishi watched and whimpered. He had never seen anything so brutal in his life and a sinking feeling in his abused guts told him that he wasn't getting out of this one as easily as he hoped.
Daishi struggled to his feet and ran. He never saw Ranma tear off Demian's longest spine, he never even saw Ranma throw it, he did feel it as it tore through his shoulder, in the back and out the front, and into a dumpster he was trying to move behind. He was left hanging against the bin by his damaged shoulder, in agony. He had never felt such pain, and at that moment was sure that he would never live long enough to feel it again, his bowels loosened and for the first time since he was a child Daishi soiled himself, thoroughly.
"Please, no more" coughed the broken devil from the floor where it lay, "I am just doing my job I.."
"I don't care" Ranma interrupted, and brought his booted foot down on the beast's skull. It crushed like an over-ripe melon, spraying gobbets of darkness across the whole area in a star-burst pattern.
"Now you" Ranma mused in that dark tone that spoke of pain and suffering. As he turned to the whimpering janitor, "What to do with you?"
"On the one hand you were possessed, and therefore not entirely responsible for your actions. On the other you made no effort to resist, and even now you are only sorry you got caught. Let me see.." With that the dark figure grabbed Daishi by the head, clenching his steel hard clawed hands around the pervert's scalp and temples. Pain once more tore through the janitor, it seemed like his entire head was on fire, that there was a spiny creature in his skull crawling about and fighting to get out.
"So" Ranma continued, "Demian didn't lie, you did invite him in. You actually made the deal yourself. You really are filth.
"But at least it makes my job easier," and with that Ranma turned the man's head, rotating it well past the point his spine was willing to go. With a noise like grinding cobbles Daishi's spine cracked. All the way from his collar bone to his skull a spiral break formed, exposing the blood vessels and nerves that the vertebrae protected. Then these too tore, stretched or punctured by wayward fragments of bone.
Daishi screamed one last time as almost every nerve ending in his body screamed one final protest. Then Daishi died, and the demons were waiting for him.